Heating furnace



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H. HOLIDAY ET HEATING FURNA Filed Feb. 2. 1928 5 ets-Sheet 2 I IVVVEZNTORJ 621 my. R

A TTORNE April 22, 1930; HOLIDAY El AL HEATING FURNACE Fil'ed Feb. 2, 1928 s Sheets-Sheet s INVENIOR. 7%

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April 22, 1930. HOLlDAY, ET AL 1,755,875

HEATING FURNACE, V

Filedsebhz, 1928 .5 Sheets-Sheet 4 llllllllllllllllllllll HHIHHHHlllllllllllfll] lHll lllHHllll VENTOR'.

' ATTORNEY.

April 22, 1930. H, HOLIDAY ET AL 1,755,875

HEATING FURNACE iled eb. 2, 1928 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

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FFICE 7 HARRY HOLIDAY, F GLENSHAW, AND WILLIAM MCKNIGHT AND JOHN G. CHRIST- FIELD, OF BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNORS, BY MESN ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE AMERIOAN ROLLING MILL COMPANY, OF MIDDLETOWN, OHIO, A. CORPORATION OF OHIO HEATING FURNACE,

Application filed February 2, 1928. Serial No. 251,431.

Our invention relates to furnaces for heatin the sliced portions of ingots,.which are toae formed into forgedsteel wheels.

In the manufacture of forged steel wheels, the practice is to form an ingot which is corrugated lengthwise on its surface, with the result of keeping the surface free of cracks and imperfections. The ingot is cut into slices termed cheeses in the trade, and the lo'length of the slices taken together'with the cross sectional" area of the ingotare predetermined so as to provide the correct amount of metal forone wheel in each slice.

The slices or cheeses are heated in a furnac, and the hot cheese is conveyed by a crane to a huge forging press-which forms a complete wheel in asingle pressing operation. The wheel is then rolled in a mill to form the edges and flanges properly, and the wheel is complete.

,7 One of the major problems in connection with the manufacture of for ed steel wheels in the manner above dcscri ed lies in the heating of the cheese. The heating should be absolutely uniform, as well as'controlled as totemperature, so that in the forging operationthe flow is even 811(1511'0. defects develop due to some of the metalb'eing harder than the rest, so

for ingot slices or cheese, particularly for the corrugated ingot cheeses, which will result'in an even heating of the slice throughing device which. revolves ,the cheeses while moving them through the furnace in a predetermined manner so as to expose all faces ofeach cheese to the products of combustion within the furnace. Also we provide for guides in connection with the feeding devices, such that cheeses of various length canbe accommodated.

We acco'mplishour objectshy that certain construction and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter more'specifically pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings 2- Figure 1 is a central longitudinal vertical section through the furnace.

It is the object of our invention to iproa vide a mechanism within the heating furnace gated or toothed as to mesh with the corruout, and more specifically to provide a feed- Figure 2 is a'continuation of Figure l.

Figure 3 is a vertical cross-section. of the,

furnace taken through the feeding devices. Figure 4-is a plan View ofthe bediy'of the furnace, showing the walls in'section. A Figure 5 is a continuation of Fi ure 5;,

Figure 6 is a plan viewof one o thefguid;

shoes.

Figure 7 is a side elevation of said guide shoe.

Figure 8 is a central cross section of said guide shoe.

Figure 9 is a or cheese. t

Figure 10 is a cross section through the transfer mechanism.

The furnace to which we have applied our invention is formed as'usual in such of side walls 1, a roof 2, and a bed or hearth 3. The hearth is where the products of combustion are burned, and there is an ap roach to the hearth which is considerably onger than the hearth, through which approach the products ofcombustion pass on their way to the flue. This approach has abed 4, which is provided with (in this instance) two length- Wise openings 5, 5, within which the feeding devices operate.

perspective of an ingot slice -Along each side of the lengthwise open= ings 5 are arranged the fixed racks'6, 6, said racks. or corrugated plates being so corrugations of an ingot slice or cheese. The racks are. set over ingot support bars 6?, 6, which furnaces ingot slicesare introduced through suitable doors, in such a way as to lie across the openings 5, and in mesh with the racks on each side of each opening. If the furnace was single, there would be but one opening, and the feeding devices would be single instead of formed in pairs as shown.

As indicated best in Figure 10, the racks have the crests 6 of the corrugations at the outer side beveled off as at 6', and the approach bed forms shoulders 9, 9, at each side of the racks for each feeding opening. The guide shoes for the ingot slices are arran ed to rest on the racks, abut the shoulders on the bed at their outer side, and engage the bevel of the rack corrugation edges, so as to hold them against slipping toward the feeding openings, thus serving as gravity shoes and requiring no bolting in place.

As indicated in Figures 6 to 8, the guides are formed of castings having corrugated bases 10 to fit the racks, with beveled shoul ders 11 at the bases of the depressions between corrugations so as to lie over the bevels on the crests ofthe rack corrugations. The castings have curved faces' 12, which engage the ends of the ingot slices and keep them moving in parallel with the racks, and holes 13, by means of which they are manipu- 'lated with rods fro'm the side doors of the furnace, at each side thereof.

There will be a set of guide shoes with which to equip the furnace for ingot slices or cheeses of each size, and naturally, only one size at once can be run through the furnace at the same time, for best operation.

In practice it is often practical to use only one set of guide-shoes at one side of the line of feed and permit the slice to engage the shoulder of the bed at the other side. A somewhat unbalanced relation of the slice to. the feed bars will not interfere with the feeding operation. I

' The furnace feed will operate fairly well without theguide shoes if constant inspection and mani ulation is maintained, or some other form 0 guide could be provided, but

the particular mode of using shoes which canbe manipulated'from the furnace doors, and

holding the shoes automatically against dis-- placement, has. proven itself the most convenient and practical way of keeping the cheeses in line. Our structure, as described,

' provides against movement of the guide shoes lengthwise of the racks by means of the corrugations, and crosswise of the racks in either direction by the means noted. The shoes are inexpensive, and wears able to avoid'the use of adjustable mechanism within the furnace which would be exposed di- "feed bars, one for each fee rectly to thefurnace combustion products, and would deteriorate'r'apidly by providing shoes of graded sizes.

As a feeding device we (provide for long opening, which bars are actuated from beneath the bed of the furnace approach and-move through a circularpath withinthe feed openings.

At a lurality of stations beneath the approach ed we provide for large worm gears 14 mounted in housings 15, and driven by a common worm shaft 16; These worm gears have on the ends of their spindles 17 which project from the housings, the eccentrics or cranks 18, which have crank pins 19 that move in an eccentric pathas the worm gears are slowly revolved.

Large yoke frames 20 are provided, which are journaled by means of slide boxes 21 and slide on the channeled blocks 21*, said blocks being pivoted on pins 21*, at each side of the Worm gear housings. The-yokes also have hushed bearings 22, which engage the crank pins on the gear eccentrics. .At the upper ends of-the two yoke arms are suitable bearings 23, which serve to mount the feed bars. Thus there are aseries of arms 24 arranged on all of the right hand bearings ,23, to which the right hand. feed bar 25; is secured, and a series of arms 26 arranged on all of the left hand hearings to which the left hand feed bar is secured. Y

The result of this interconnection and mounting is that the yokes rise and fall and swing to and fro on the blocks 21, as actuated by the crank pins, and the bearings 23 traverse an oval or elliptical path defined by the movement of the slide boxes and the movement of the crank pins. The feed bars being connected to a series of the yokes maintainparallelism with each other, and move through an elliptical ath.

The feed bars are ormed witha series of pockets 27 therein, and the path of movement is controlled so that the feed bars as they rise partially lift the ingot slicesorya orientation to the furnace at a new station,

but in each instance is caused to roll and pre- 7 'sent a new orientation to the furnace at each operation of the feeding device. In the case of very large'diameter pieces, it will be necessary to start them ofi with one at every other pocket. Otherwise the shapevof the feed bar is such that itwill feed ingots of a considerable range of diameters from station to station. In the design shown the incorrugations at gots will move four steps or each intermittent advance. I We have found that the result of rolling the ingot slice along is to .permit the products A of combustion to thoroughly heat up the said slice, and when the slices reach the hearth of the'furnace, which isin'clined,-the operators push them along with 'ars. The slices show a tendency to roll on t e sloping surwhen they ar'efo'n the-hearth and up to fulltemperature has not-been found to be nec:. essary. The length of the approach with relation tothe length of the hearth is a matter of deface, but rollingofthem at the final stage racks.

, along the rack portions,

rack element to support sign, as are the details of the movement whereby the feed bars are given an elliptical path in parallelism with the supports and Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure-by Letters Patent, is

1. In a furnace for uniformly heating corrugated ingot portions, the combination of rack elementsto support the ingot portions in the furnace and to engage the corrugations of the ingot portions, and means for causing the ingot portions to roll in intermittent steps along the rack portions.

2. In a furnace-for uniformly heating corrugated ingot portions, the combination of rack elements to support the ingot portions in the furnace and to engage the corrugations of the ingot portions, and means for causing the ingot portions to roll in intermittent steps comprising members moving through an elliptical path, insuflicient to lift the ingot portions out of mesh with the rack element.

3. In a furnace for uniformly heating corrugated ingot portions, the combination of a the ingot portions in the furnace, said rack element being in two parts with a feed opening between them, said rack element arranged to mesh with the corrugations of the ingot portions, and a feed bar moving in an elliptical path through the said opening, and having pockets therein, saidfeed bar engaging the ingot portions and moving them in steps without lifting them to relieve the mesh with the racks, for the purpose described.

4. A feeding and supporting device for a corrugated ingot slice furnace comprising a rack on which the ingot slice rests and with which it meshes, a device arranged to move the ingot slice step by step without lifting it from mesh, with the result of rolling the ingot slice partially during each feeding step, and guiding means for the ingot slice comprising gravity shoes having an ingot guiding face, and corrugations to engage the rack.

5. A feeding and supporting device for a .i corrugated ingot slice furnace comprising a rack on which the ingot slice rests and with which it meshes, a device arranged to move the ingot slice step by step without lifting it from mesh, with the result of rolling the ingot slice partially during each feeding step, and guiding means for the ingot slice comprising gravity shoes having an ingot guiding face. and corrugations to engage the rack,

said rack having bevels along the outer edge of the same, and beveled shoulders on the guides to engage said shoulders, for the purpose described.

6. A feeding and supporting device for a corrugated ingot slice furnace comprising a rack formed of interspaced reaches having an opening between them for a feeding eleopening between them for a feeding element,

said rack arranged to support and mesh with a corrugated ingot slice, and a feeding element operating in said opening and engaging the ingot slice intermediate its ends, so as to move it without lifting it from mesh with the rack, said element formed of a lengthwise bar having interspaced elevated portions, and means for moving the bar through an elliptical path having a length equal to the spacing of the elevated portions.

'8. A feeding device for furnaces for heating ingot slices, which consists in a feed bar having a series of raised portions interspaced approximately the distance of the diameter of an ingot slice to be heated, means for supporting the ingot slice and retaining it crosswise of the feed bar, and means for the feed bar in an elliptical path maintaining parallelism with the ingot slice support.

9. A feeding device for furnaces for heating ingot slices, which consists in a feed bar having a series of raised portions interspaced approximatel the distance of the diameter of an ingot shoe to be heated, means for supporting the ingot slice and retaining it crosswise of the feed bar, and means for moving the feed bar in an elliptical path maintaining parallelism with the ingot slice support, said feeding means comprising a series of cranks having pins, a series of means journaled on said pins and connected pivotally to the feed bar, and slide bearings for said means located on the opposite side of the crank pin journal point from the pivotal connections to the feed bar.

10. In a furnace for uniformly heating corrugated ingot portions, the combination of a rack element arranged to support the ingot portions and the ingot portions corrugated to mesh with said rack, and mechanical means for pushing the ingot portions along the rack without lifting them from mesh with the rack.

HARRY HOLIDAY. WILLIAM MQKNIGHT. JOHN G. CHRISTFIELD.

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